Disposable dusters and methods of making them



Nov. 19, 1957 F. s. STRADER DISPOSABLE DUSTERS AND METHODS OF- MAKINGTHEM Filed Feb. 2, 1954 FIG. 2

FIG. '4

FIG. 6

INVENTOR F. G. S TRADER By A TTORNEV United States Patent DISPOSABLEDUSTERS AND METHODS OF MAKING THEM Forman G. Strader, Buckhannon, W.Va., assignor to Forrnan E. Strader, Towson, Md.

Application February 2, 1954, Serial No. 407,696

7 Claims. (Cl. -118) are sufficiently inexpensive to be thrown awayafter each dusting portion has been used only once, and to methods ofmaking such dusters.

It is customary for a barber or a beautician to use a soft brush orduster to whisk away the cut ends of hair that fall on the face, neckand the clothing of a patron during the act of cutting hair. Manifestly,for sanitary reasons, it is desirable that such a brush be used onlyonce or that it be sterilized after each use. In fact, the laws of manyStates prohibit repeated use of barbers tools, combs and brushes withoutintervening sterilization. The initial cost of brushes made of animal orartificial fiber bristles is too great to permit them to be discardedafter only one use. Also the time, equipment and materials required tosterilize such brushes repeatedly make it extremely expensive to do so.Hence, there is need for a brush that is effective and yet issufficiently cheap to be thrown away after a single use of each dustingportion thereof.

An object of this invention is to provide new, effective and inexpensivedisposable clusters, and to provide new and useful methods of making thesame.

A further object of the invention is to provide disposable dusters whichhave multiple dusting portions and are sufliciently inexpensive topermit them to be thrown away after each dusting portion has been usedonly once, and to provide simple methods of making such dusters.

Another object of the invention is to provide disposable double dustersin which the dusting portions are completely isolated from each other toprevent migration of germs from one portion to the other, and to provideinexpensive methods of making disposable clusters of this nature.

The aforementioned and other objects and features of the invention willbe apparent from the following detailed description of specificembodiments thereof, when read in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a disposable duster embodying theinvention, with portions thereof broken away to illustrate itsconstruction;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing how a portion of the duster isassembled;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the duster having a portion of thewrapper removed to permit use of one of the dusting portions thereof;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view similar to Fig. 2 illustrating anothermethod of making the duster;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view showing how a plurality of dustersembodying the invention may be grouped together, and

Fig. 6 is a perspective view similar to Fig. 1 showing a disposableduster forming another embodiment of the invention.

Referring now to Fig. l of the drawing, there is shown how a disposableduster embodying the invention is assembled. One or more wide, elongatedbands 10-10 of soft paper and a narrow, outer band 11 of tougher paperare rolled into a cylinder 12. The bands 10-10 are made of soft paper,such as is used in making paper napkins, or they may be made of a softtissue of the type used to make facial tissues. One particular paperthat is suitable is known in the paper trade as a soft fibrous,non-woven paper. The edges of each paper band 10 are slit in anysuitable manner to form parallel rows each containing a multiplicity ofthin strips 14-14, which serve as dusting elements when the duster isused. The center portion 16 of the paper band is uncut, and serves as abase for the edge strips 14-14. The edge strips 14-14 are encased inwrappers 17-17, which are her metically sealed to keep the clustersterile until :it is used.

In practicing one method of making this form of duster, soft paperbands, which are longer than those shown in Fig. 1 and do not have theextreme edge portions thereof slitted, are rolled into a tight cylinderalong with the narrow band 11 of tougher paper. The bands 10- 10 areslit, as shown in Fig. 2, outwardly from the outer ends of the uncutcenter portion 16 for a distance equal to the length of the ribbons14-14 shown in Fig. l, but thin, unslitted, longitudinal strips 20-20are left at the extreme edges of the bands.

Each of such soft paper bands 10-10 is coated along one side of theuncut center portion 16 thereof with one or more longitudinally appliedlayers 21-21 of adhesive, and the narrow band 11 is likewise coated onthe side thereof adjacent to the soft paper bands 10-10 withlongitudinal layers 22-22 of adhesive. Preferably several of such bands10-10 with the adhesive layers 21- 21 applied thereto are placedtogether with the narrow outer band 11 as shown in Fig. 2, and then theyall are rolled into a cylinder. After the bands 10-10 and 11 are rolledinto a cylinder, and are caused to adhere to each other at the centerportions 16-16 to form an impervious barrier, the ends of the cylinder12 are cut off just inside the edge strips 20-20 leaving the ribbons14-44 at the ends thereof free.

The reason for making these cylinders in this manner is that the bandsare made of soft and somewhat fluffy paper. As a result, if the bandsare slit all the way to their edges to form free ribbons at the endsthereof, the ribbons tend to form bushy groups and may become somewhatentangled. Also they are limp and tend to droop. These characteristicsmake it somewhat diflicult to roll several of these bands, or a singleband, into a cylinder that is as tight at the ends as it is at thecenter. By providing the extra, uncut strips 20-20 at the edges of thebands and rolling such bands into a tight cylinder, the ribbons 14-14are held in place during the rolling operation and the resultingcylinder 12 is compact throughout its length.

The adhesive used may be a glue or cement which hardens when it cools.In either case, the adhesive causes the center portion of theconvolutions to become so securely aflixed to each other that they forma solid barrier between the slitted edge portions 14-14 of the bands10-10. Obviously the same result is obtained when a single, but longer,band of soft paper is treated with layers of adhesive and is rolled intoa cylinder along with an outer narrow band of tougher paper. Also anyother suitable manner of effecting a tight seal between the convolutionsat the center of the cylinder may be employed.

The outer narrow band 11 acts as a stiffener and facilitates the rollingof the wider bands 10-10 of soft paper into a cylinder. It also makesthe completed cylinder more rigid, and provides a firm base to which,the

inner ends of the wrappers 17-17 may be adhered firmly. In addition, theband 11 provides space upon which advertising matter may be printed oradhered.

After the cylinder 12 has been formed, it is encased in the wrappers17-17, which may be made of sheets of paper, cellophane, or the like.The sheets are rolled into tubes about the ends of the cylinder 12, andthe overlapping edges 22-22 thereof are stuck to the surface of thesheet therebeneath by a suitable adhesive or by heat sealing. The innerends of these sheets are secured in the same manner to the narrow band11 near the edges thereof to form tight seals. The ends of the sheet areformed into folds, such as the fold 24 (Fig. l), which also are stucktogether so as to form an impervious seal at each end of the duster.

The wrappers 17-17 are provided with severable portions 25-25, to permitthe ends of the wrappers to be selectively removed to uncover the strips14-14 therebeneath. Preferably, the wrappers are made of cellophane, orother plastic, in which case the severable portions 25-25 may betear-strips, such as are used on cigarette packages and the like. If thewrappers 17-17 are made of paper, rip cords may be provided to expeditetheir removal. If desired, the inner ends thereof may be free andproject inwardly over the narrow band 11 beyond the areas where thewrappers are joined to the band 11. The free inner ends of the wrappersmay be grasped so that they may be torn readily.

In using this duster, one of the wrappers 17-17 is torn along theseverable portion 25 thereof, and that wrapper is removed. The dusterthen will look like that shown in Fig. 3, with the strips 14-14 at theuncovered end free and those at the other end still encased in the otherwrapper 17. The encased end and the center of the duster may be used asa handle to manipulate the free strips 14-14, like the bristles of anordinary brush are used, to remove ends of hair or other unwanted matterfrom the face or clothes of a patron of a barber shop or beauty shop,for example.

It should be noted that the solid barrier formed by the adheredconvolutions at the uncut center portion 16 of each paper band preventsany germs, such as may cause skin or other diseases, from migrating tothe encased end of the duster. Obviously, after one end of the dusterhas been used on one patron it is never used again upon another patron.However, the encased end of the duster is still sanitary, and may beused in the same manner upon another person without danger ofcontamination from the used end of the duster. When both ends of theduster have been used, the entire duster is thrown away.

Obviously, instead of using two wrappers like the wrappers 17-17, thecylinder 12 could be covered with a single wrapper which covers theentire cylinder. In that case, the single wrapper would be sealed at theoverlapping edge and at the ends in the manner described. The wrapperwould also be sealed to the narrow band 11 so as to form an imperviousseal between the ends of the duster. The wrapper would also be providedwith two severable portions at about the locations of the severableportions 25-25 to permit the ends of the wrapper to be selectivelyremoved to successively expose the free strips at the ends of theduster.

Instead of making the cylinders for these clusters singly, as is shownin Fig. 2, it would be more feasible in commercial production to followthe method illustrated in Fig. 4. In accordance with this method, anumber of very Wide, soft paper bands 30-30 are slitted so as to formrelatively wide bands of ribbons 34-34, like the ribbons 14-14 shown inFig. 2, which are joined together by unslitted portions 36-36, each ofthe same width as the uncut portion 16, and by narrower unslittedportions 38-38, each of the same width as the edge strips -20. At theedges there are narrow, uncut strips 40-40, like the uncut edge strips20-20 shown in Fig. 2.

These bands 30-30 are interleaved with several narrow, center bands31-31, like the band 11, which are made of tougher and firmer paper thanare the bands 30-30. The several Wide bands 30-30 and the interleavednarrow, center bands 31-31 are rolled into a long cylinder in the samemanner that the cylinder 12 is formed. The several convolutions of thecylinder are adhered together at the uncut center portions 36-36 and atthe narrow, center bands 31-31 in the same manner as are those of thecylinder 12 so that barriers are formed between the slitted ribbons34-34.

After the long cylinder has thus been formed, 'it is cut into lengthseach equal to the length of the cylinder 12 and of identicalconstruction. This is done by cutting the cylinder transversely at theinner edges of the narrow outer strips 40-40, and at the outer edges ofthe unslitted portions 38-38. The resulting shorter cylinders will beidentical in construction with the cylinder 12, but it is obvious thatthey are formed more expeditiously and cheaply than is the case whenonly one cylinder is made at a time. The bands may be made as wide asdesired to make any selected number of cylinders by one rollingoperation and one cutting step.

The several cylinders formed in this manner are encased in wrappers likethe wrappers 17-17, which may be selectively removed from the ends ofthe completed article to expose the ribbons 34-34 for use as brushingelements. Only one of the strips 31-31 may be used, if desired, as isthe case in the manufacture of the cylinder 12. Likewise, a number ofnarrow center strips like the strips 31-31 may be used to make anindividual cylinder like the cylinder 12.

The dusters just described, made by individually encasing cylinders likethe cylinder 12 with wrappers like the wrappers 17-17, may be packagedin boxes or the like. However, it may be desirable in some cases tosecure a plurality of the dusters together in an endless string in themanner shown in Fig. 5. In that case, an endless, looped casing belt 49is formed of two sheets 50-50 of paper or other suitable material, suchas cellophane. The sheets 50-50 are joined together along transverseareas 51-51 between each of a plurality of cylinders 52-52 by means ofan adhesive or by heat sealing. Transverse severable portions 55-55similar to the severable portions 25-25 are provided at the centers ofthe areas 51-51 between each pair of cylinders 52-52 to permit thecylinders to be separated as desired.

The edges of the sheets 50-50 are sealed along longitudinal areas 57-57,so that the individual cylinders are hermetically sealed between thesheets and are kept sterile. Longitudinal severable portions 59-59 likethe severable portions 25-25 are provided to permit the ribbons to beselectively exposed and used as dusting elements. The sheets 50-50 areadhered to narrow, center bands 60-60 on the cylinders 52-52 by anadhesive or by heat sealing to keep the ends of the dusters isolateduntil exposed by removing the wrappers directly encasing them. Such astring may be rolled into a cylinder, or it may be folded into layers ina container.

Another form of duster embodying the invention is shown in Fig. 6, whichduster is similar to the one shown in Fig. 1. However, instead of havingthe entire cylinder made of rolled up slitted bands of paper and one ormore narrow, tougher center bands, it is provided with a stiff centercore 70 around which the bands of paper may be wound into a cylinder 71similar to that shown in Fig. 1. The slitted paper bands have uncutcenter portions 72-72 and the sides of the paper bands are in the formof ribbons 73-73 which serve as dusting elements. Hermetically sealedwrappers 74-74, like the wrappers 17-17, enclose the ends of thecylinder 71. The wrappers 74-74 have severable portions 75-75, whichfunction in the same manner as do the severable portions 25- 25 shown inFig. 1.

The core 70 is in the form of a thin cylinder, and it may be made of asolid piece of wood, plastic, fiber or the like. The core 70 may be madeof a tube of cardboard, or the like, in which case there would be a plugof cotton, or other suitable material, inserted in the tube to form agerm barrier. The paper bands are secured to the core 70 and to thecenter portions of each other by a suitable adhesive in a manner similarto that by which the band 11 and the uncut center portions 16-16 areadhered together in the embodiment shown in Fig. 1. Likewise thewrappers 74-74 are sealed to a narrow, center band 77 in the same mannerthat the wrappers 17-17 are secured to the center band 11.

The purpose of the plug 70 is two-fold. In the first place, it is morerigid than are the center portions of the paper bands that are woundaround it. Hence, it stiifens the duster at the center and the entirecenter section of the duster forms a firm handle or support for thepaper ribbons 73-73 when the ribbons are used as dusting elements. Itshould be noted that the plug 70 should not extend materially beyond theuncut center portions 72-72 of the paper bands, so that the ribbons73-73 are free to flex throughout substantially their entire lengths.Thus, the ribbons effecitvely serve their purpose as dusting elements.

Another function of the plug 70 is to make a more certain and elfectivegerm barrier between the ends of the duster. While the barrier formed bythe adhered center portions 11-11 in the first-described embodiment ofthe invention is effective, it is obviously sometimes diflicult to rollthe inner convolutions of the paper hands together tightly enough toensure a germ-proof barrier. By providing the impervious plug 70 as abase upon which the convolutions of the paper bands are wound, theinnermost convolutions are as tight as the outer ones and a germ proofbarrier is ensured at the center of the duster.

It is believed that the construction, mode of use and advantages ofdusters embodying the invention, will be apparent from the foregoingdescription. Since such dusters are made of very inexpensive materials,they may be made so cheaply that they may be discarded after one use ofeach of the two dusting portions thereof. Despite the apparent fragilityof the soft paper ribbons, which act as dusting elements and which takethe place of bristles in the ordinary brushes used by barbers andbeauticians, they nevertheless are etfective to whisk away bits of hair,lint and the like from the skin or clothing. The very softness of thesepaper ribbon dusting elements permits them to be used upon the face of apatron without the patron experiencing the unpleasant scratching efltectresulting from having the bristles of even a supposedly soft barbersbrush whisked across his face.

While the foregoing embodiments of the invention are inexpensive andeffective for their intended purpose, it is obvious that dusters ofvarious other forms and sizes, and for other uses, may be made withinthe spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A disposable duster, which comprises a plurality of bands of softpaper having elongated, parallel narrow ribbons extending laterally frompoints near the center portions to the edges thereof and an outer,narrow, center band of tougher paper all rolled into a tight cylinder,means for forming a barrier at the center portion of the cylinder toprevent migration of germs between the ends of the cylinder, and airtight sealed wrappers enclosing the ribbons to prevent contaminations ofthe ribbons, said wrappers including severable means near the inneredges thereof for selective removal of the wrappers to uncover theribbons therebeneath, whereby the ribbons may be used as dustingelements.

2. A disposable duster, which comprises an impervious cylindrical core,at least one elongated band of flexible paper rolled upon the core intoan enclosing cylinder and having an uncut center portion from whichparallel ribbons extend laterally to the edges of the bands, means forsecuring the center portions of the convolutions of the cylinder to thecore and to each other to form a germproof barrier between the ends ofthe cylinder, and hermetically sealed wrappers enclosing the ends of thecylinder and having severable portions to permit the wrappers to beselectively removed to expose the paper strips at the ends of thecylinder.

3. The method of making disposable dusters, which comprises slitting theedge portion of an elongated soft paper tape into thin strips leavingthe center portions uncut, applying an adhesive to the uncut centerportion of said tape along substantially the entire length thereof,applying an adhesive to an elongated, narrow tape of tougher paper,placing said soft paper tape and said narrow tape of tougher paper injuxtaposition, rolling the tapes together along their longitudinal axesinto a tight cylinder having flexible end portions and a more rigidcenter portion, causing the adhesive to secure the convolutions of thecenter portion of the cylinder together, and enclosing the resultingassembly in a sanitary covering having severable portions to permit theends thereof to be selectively removed from the cylinder to free thepaper strips for use as dusting means.

4. The method of making disposable double dusters, which comprisesrolling into a tight cylinder a narrow tape of tough paper and aplurality of wide, soft, flexible paper tapes having uncut centerportions and elongated, narrow ribbons extending laterally from saidcenter portions to the edges of the strips, forming a germ-proof barrierat the center of the cylinder to isolate the ribbons at one end fromthose at the other end, and com pletely encasing at least the ribbons ofthe resulting assembly within a sanitary covering having severableportions for selective removal of the ends of the covering to uncoverthe ribbons therebeneath.

5. The method of making disposable double dusters, which comprisestransversely slitting an elongated, soft, flexible paper strip into thinparallel ribbons leaving a center band and thin edge portions uncut,rolling the thus slitted strip into a cylinder about an imperviouscylindrical core, causing the center portions of the convolutions of thecylinder to adhere to the core and to each other to form a barrierbetween the ends of the cylinder, cutting off the ends of the cylinderjust inside the uncut edge strips to free the adjacent ends of the thinstrips, and enclosing at least the end portions of the cylinder insanitary wrapping material having severable portions to permit selectiveexposure of the ribbons.

6. The method of making disposable dusters, which comprises forming amultiplicity of transverse slits from one end to the other of anelongated, soft, flexible paper tape so as to leave a longitudinal,uncut band at the center of the strip joined by longer thin transversestrips to narrow, longitudinal strips at the edges of the tape, rollingthe thus-slitted tape longitudinally into a tight cylinder, causing theuncut center portions of the resulting convolutions to adhere to eachother, cutting the cylinder transversely near the ends thereof to removethe longitudinal edge strips and free the outer ends of the transversestrips, and encasing at least the end portions of the resulting assemblyin sanitary material.

7. The method of making disposable double dusters, which comprisesmaking parallel slits partially across wide, elongated Webs of softpaper so as to leave thin parallel ribbons bounded at the outer edges ofthe web by narrow uncut strips and alternately separated by relativelywide uncut bands and narrow uncut strips, placing at least one such webtogether with a plurality of narrow, elongated bands of tougher paper sothat the latter bands are adjacent and parallel to the wide uncut bandsin the web, rolling the thus formed group into a tight cylinder with theribbons running longitudinally thereof, securing the convolutions of thecylinder together at the wide uncut bands and at the bands of tougherpaper to form gerrn proof barriers between the ribbons, cutting thecylinder transversely into sections each of which includes one centeruncut band to which are attached ribbon portions having their outer endsfree, and hermetically sealing at least the ribbons of such sectionswithin sanitary wrapping material having severable portions which permitselective exposure of the ribbons.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTSFrancois Sept. 11, 1928 Carbone May 6, 1930 Salvucci 'June 24, 1938Stepan Nov. 22, 1938 Farone Apr. '8, 1952

